Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Abbigail Bush what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

dougdoepke No need to repeat consensus points or details emphasized by other reviewers.Actually, I'm surprised the series lasted as long as it did, two seasons (1954-56). The trouble is the format aimed at realism at a time when TV was new, and escapism was the prime-time norm. And not only did episodes of Medic deal as realistically as possible with all manner of medical problems, but the narratives were often highly literate. Thus, demands were made on the audience, especially when real footage of an operation was included. In short, it wasn't the kind of series you relaxed with behind a TV-tray dinner. I suspect creator James Moser was influenced by his early work on Dragnet (1951-59) and its effort at police work realism.To my knowledge, Medic has never been revived or re-run during the intervening years. Now, happily, episodes are available on DVD, so there's an opportunity for the series to reach cult status, which it richly deserves. For example, high level drama is implicit in story lines when serious medical problems are the topic. So there's little need for contrivance in that regard. (Nonetheless, one entry deals with teenage acne, hardly life-threatening, but a real adolescent problem at the time. "When Mama Says Jump" 1956) Then too, I like the fact that real doctors are often used, without need for a central hero, like a Ben Casey or a Dr. Kildare. Rather, it's the medical profession as a whole and not a personality that's elevated. Note too that actor Boone's rather strong but homely appearance also promotes a sense of reality and not Hollywood. Understandably, entries generally ended on an upbeat note. Occasionally, however, a note of uncertainty would creep into the ending, a further gesture to reality and a TV novelty at the time. Of course, what was cutting edge medicine in 1955 likely is no longer so. In that sense, the show is somewhat dated. Still, the built-in human drama remains as current now as it was then. Thanks be to creator Moser for the bold gamble he took. It's one that certainly merits DVD revival.

mrb1980 "Medic" is a top-drawer medical drama that ran from 1954 to 1956. The series took the same anthology approach that was later adopted by "Twilight Zone" and other shows: each episode had established and up-and-coming actors in a different medical drama each week. The steady Richard Boone starred as Dr. Konrad Styner, who narrated each show and acted in several. The show was well-directed, compact, and compelling.Lots of past and future stars appeared, including Claude Akins, Beverly Garland, Hugh Beaumont, Charles Bronson, Lee Marvin, and many others. The show was remarkably frank for its period and portrayed medicine in a no-nonsense fashion. The series may appear rather technically crude now, but it's a lot better than most shows today, which include inane and suggestive dialogue, swooshing sound effects, screaming laugh tracks and really childish stories. I highly recommend considering the DVD set for an excellent mid-1950s TV experience.P.S. You sure can tell this was made in the 1950s. After a particularly tricky delivery of a newborn, Dr. Styner and another doctor start smoking cigarettes outside the delivery room!

Joseph Harder James Moser was one of the outstanding writing talents in Television history. Sadly, he is almost forgotten and is, probably, quite unknown. He graduated from a Catholic college in California, then booked ship as a sailor on a tramp steamer headed to Australia. After working a variety of jobs in Australia, including journalism, he returned to the states and started writing for Radio. Jack Webb noticed his talent and hired him to be head writer on Dragnet. Moser wrote a wide range of teleplays in the fifties, including a dramatization of the life of Charles Proteus Steinmitz. Moser came up for the idea of an intelligent, realistic medical drama, that would star Richard Boone as Dr. Conrad Styner. To make sure the show was authentic, Moser worked as an orderly in a Los Angeles hospital for nearly two years. Medic, while critically acclaimed, lagged in the ratings, and was canceled after several years. Moser later came up with an idea for an even better, equally hard-hitting medical show, Ben Casey. Later Moser created another superb show that flopped in the ratings, Slattery's People. In 1965, he was the first person to receive The Gabriel Award from The Catholic Academy of Broadcast Professionalws for creating "shows that uplifted the human spirit." Of Course, NONE of them can be found on DVD.

Robin Cook I'm waiting for the other DVD's, so I've watched four episodes of this series thus far. I remember when I was young when this show came on the air, but was too young to appreciate it or understand it. The episodes I've watched are, My Brother Joe (6); The Wild Intruder (11); Break Through the Bars (20); and General Practitioner (27). These short half hour episodes (B&W) were actually very good even in comparison with the forensic flashiness of CSI's and terminology crazed Bones series. Richard Boone's appearance as only the introductory narrative was disappointing since I was hoping he would be starring in the episodes, but that disappointment was cast aside as I watched each show. Each episode was instructive with various situations of both medical and family topicked issues. These issues were very well addressed to teach the public ... and were not done in in the push-down-your-throat kind of way, which gave this series more class than most of what I've seen today. I must admit I laughed a few times when the camera focused on some old forensic equipment as state of the art, but I did wonder if they did use actual medical equipment for this series.I did not find this series as a nostalgic view, nor did I find it corny or creepily old-fashioned or melodramatic. This show had class of an upper crust that I believe would be good to run re-runs on television today (if they haven't already done so).Naturally, technology has changed since this series aired, but these episodes I have viewed, their content is timeless and still applies to today's perspectives. For example, in Break Through the Bars episode, Lee J. Cobb stars as a man in a bank who suddenly undergoes depression and manic episodes. Social stigma was stronger at the time this episode aired, but I don't believe it has changed that much today for mental illness. In the episode The Wild Intruder, the subject of breast cancer still remains a mystery and one that is hard to treat, plus the personal hardship of having a breast removed ... and, at the end of the episode there is Richard Boone narrating a summarization in a medical scheme of basically informing the public that such is the sacrifice to continue living.This series addresses some very tough issues other than medical. So, if people can get past the black and white versus color mental block, I sincerely believe they'll enjoy watching this good oldie series.